Interesting usenet thread...

[Ming]

Uhhh... you are the one that started calling people morons... So if you insult one more person, you're toast.

[Dracil]

(oops, nm. Had something about the 2 different AIs but decided it was irrelevant and I can't delete this)

[H Tower]

">I like the game, but sometimes I feel as if there isn't much to do, the
>AI seems to take care of my planets better than me, and can probably
>fight battles more efficiently too.Overall, I find SP to be fairly dull - it's too easy and the eye-candy
soon palls.
The game has been optimised for MP though and that should
be more interesting. One will probably have to micro-manage furiously
to get an edge though and that will be frustrating against the clock."

perhaps this person should try to get better at the game. Afterall, he's had it for how many days?

And doesn't his comment about MP seem to contradict what he said about the AI? The AI is better at micromanagement, but if you want to win in mp, you have to micromanage?

[Tuberski]

"The AI runs it better than I do."

Maybe he just sucks at it.

ACK!

[H Tower]

RTFM would be good advice for this guy. If he can't figure out how to manage a single planet, how does he expect to manage an empire of dozens of planets. Oh wait, I forgot, he sucks at the game so he won't even get off the barren rock he started out on

[warden]

Originally posted by H Tower
And doesn't his comment about MP seem to contradict what he said about the AI? The AI is better at micromanagement, but if you want to win in mp, you have to micromanage?

The game has been designed to minimise micromanagement. You can still do it in some areas but it's tedious because there's more detail and it's buried under layers of interface. The consequence is:

SP: you will set the game to a difficulty level at which you can beat the computer without micromanagement. The game will then appear to play itself to a considerable extent.

MP: everyone is playing on the same terms. You can't afford to take it easy because there will be an obsesssive out there using every available second to tweak and twiddle his position. If he's getting an edge by micromanaging then there will be pressure to do likewise. You can't rely upon your superior strategic thinking because your human opponents have that too.

[Fireblade]

@warden

You can't micromanage everything in multiplayer, because of the timed turns.
And if you end your turn before the time ends, the game grants you a bonus.

[H Tower]

where did you hear that from fireblade?

[Fireblade]

Hi !

I read it in the Apolyton Preview. Quote:

APPENDIX I-A: FINANCE – LEDGER – INCOME
Excerpt from the MoO3 manual, page 79:

INTEREST EARNED ON IMPERIAL TREASURY SURPLUS
If you are playing a game with timed turns, any interest you earn by finishing your turn early is displayed here.


mfg
Fireblade

[warden]

Originally posted by Fireblade
You can't micromanage everything in multiplayer, because of the timed turns. And if you end your turn before the time ends, the game grants you a bonus.

So the micromanagement has to be done against the clock. I gather that the bonus for pressing the turn button before time is up has been cut. This means that there's no game reason not to use every second. It's an odd cut because this will tend to make MP games play more slowly and intensively overall. I think they found that players were exploiting the feature by pressing the turn button ASAP and the payoff for this was too good. Perhaps the bonus should only start after a minute ...?

[kalbear]

Read the above post by Fireblade.

[warden]

Originally posted by kalbear
Read the above post by Fireblade.

The Apolyton review is a poor source of info - the guy didn't really play the game. And that manual is out-of-date. It was probably written for the November release, like the strategy guide. The current release delay may mean that they are rewriting it.

Anyway, my understanding is still that the bonus for finishing the turn early is out.

[booje]

Well, at least we have only one full week left of waiting for it. That's approximately, 9 hours, 35 minutes and 20 seconds!!

[Darkrenown]

Originally posted by warden

So the micromanagement has to be done against the clock. I gather that the bonus for pressing the turn button before time is up has been cut.

ONLY if you turn timed turns on. And, AFAIK, higher interest for beating the time limit is still in.

[Darkrenown]

Originally posted by MitchDev

A) That the design team skimped on the AI and designed mainly for MP.

B) Has no DEMO for it

C) Has cut as many basic features as MoO3 has (Naming planets, selecting your flag's color just to name two)

D) Has an "official" message board that you have to register just to read and has such rude and "favorite's playing" moderators as IG does...

Just in case anyone was worried about these:

A) Not true.
B) Demos are hard to make for this type of game. About the only thing you could do is let people download the whole game with a turn limiter. I'm sure everyone can see the problems with that.
C) In Moo2 you could name stars, not planets. Now you pick your flag instead of your colour, and you can design your own flags.
D) Needing to register is up to IG, not QS.